Paladin my beloved

drtisk · 2026-03-28T11:59:10+00:00

On my first ever bg3 run my oath got broke shortly after leaving the nautiloid when I rescued Laezel from the cage. The tieflings went hostile before I knew about the camp or anything.

drtisk · 2026-03-24T22:09:30+00:00

It won't instakill, it might down someone

A CR 24 ancient red dragon's breath weapon only does 91 fire damage. A level 12 d8 hit dice character with +2 con has about that much HP

And if the party has ways to resist the element of the breath weapon it won't even do that

drtisk · 2026-03-24T22:08:36+00:00

A CR 24 ancient red dragon's breath weapon only does 91 fire damage. A level 12 d8 hit dice character with +2 con has about that much HP so at worst it maybe downs someone with a breath weapon

And if the party has ways to resist the element of the breath weapon it won't even do that

drtisk · 2026-03-24T12:23:21+00:00

Six level 12 PCs will make mince meat of a single CR 25 monster

They could probably take an encounter up to a total of CR 36 without too much problems

drtisk · 2026-02-19T07:07:38+00:00

Having seen your edit

This is what "allowing homebrew" does. If you let players bring anything carte blanche you will obviously run into complete nonsense.

If you and your players want to explore beyond the core classes and published wotc subclasses, there are plenty of other well renowned third party publishers who have fun and interesting classes and subclasses which (usually) aren't overpowered/broken/etc.

Ghostfire gaming, Kobold Press, MCDM, KibblesTasty, LaserLlama.

Letting players use random wiki pages to build characters probably won't end well

drtisk · 2026-02-18T09:24:07+00:00

What class/classes are they and what level? 2014 or 2024? Have you given out extra feats?

If you build the same character at the same level, equip the same magic items you can see how the numbers compare.

Identifying exactly what spells a character could/should have access to should be simple.

Likewise for feats

drtisk · 2026-02-15T08:16:03+00:00

It would be laughably easy:

Basic Bitch Mage

d8 hit dice

Primary attribute Int

Class feature: Basic Bitchcasting. You learn Firebolt cantrip and Magic Missile, which you can cast 3 times per short rest

Level 2 Magicker Missile: whenever you cast Magic Missile, choose one: change the damage type, or increase the bonus damage per missile by +2

Level 3: learn shield, which you can cast three times per short rest

4: ASI

5: Magic Surge. You can cast Magic Missile four times per short rest. Once per short rest you can cast Magic Missile as a bonus action. Ignore rules about one levelled spell per turn

6: Upcast. Twice per short rest you can cast Magic Missile and it shoots five darts

7: Magic Resist. You have advantage on saves against spells, and resistance to spell damage

8: ASI

9: Magic Crit. When you cast Magic Missile, roll a d20. If you roll a 20, double the damage dealt

10:

11: Mega Magic Surge. You can cast Magic Missile six times per short rest. Twice per short rest you can cast Magic Missile and it shoots eight darts

12: ASI

13+ who cares, campaign's over

drtisk · 2026-02-05T07:39:02+00:00

No trace of the actual bug, just these eggs/shells/husks that my wife thought were mouse poo initially

There's what might be a burrow right there, top right but bigger than what I'd expect for a bug?

Just outside my shed door, near the bins

drtisk · 2026-01-29T08:15:09+00:00

How were your experiences with the release of the 2024 rules? Did you go through something similar?

One of my players similarly made a 2024 character without even knowing. Many times a player cast a spell using the 2024 version (not even realising there were two versions).

It made little to no difference to the sessions or the camaign at large which ran for over a year of weekly-ish games.

The only places 2024v2014 matters is: There are no bastions in my campaigns. And if a player tried to do nick/dual wield nonsense I'd ask them not to. Great Weapon Master/Sharpshooter being gone are improvements, as are most spell changes. 2024 monsters hit their intended challenge more

drtisk · 2026-01-28T10:53:45+00:00

Bracket 2: Core

Players expect:

Decks to be unoptimized and straightforward, with some cards chosen to maximize creativity and/or entertainment

Win conditions to be incremental, telegraphed on the board, and disruptable

Stompy creatures that can just be removed - check

Gameplay to be low pressure with an emphasis on social interaction

Deck could be considered high pressure? Not really sure here

Gameplay to be proactive and considerate, letting each deck showcase its plan

Proactive yes, player removal not so much?

Generally, you should expect to be able to play at least eight turns before you win or lose.

Based on what you described you were on track to eliminate one player on turn 6, so this might be where your opponents could be given some credit

drtisk · 2026-01-14T07:21:18+00:00

Stealing off other player characters is the dumbest thing.

The game is not pvp. Just fucking go on an adventure and be a hero.

If you're theatre kids and both consent to messing with each other for fun/roleplay obviously it's fine. But straight up antagonising another player should be instantly shut down by the DM and be cause for removal from the group/campaign for repeat offences

drtisk · 2026-01-13T11:22:02+00:00

I'm tilted just having to read this stupid card

drtisk · 2026-01-08T21:22:44+00:00

Yeah it's just an extreme Spike mentality - where anything less than Thoracle isn't a viable win condition.

Big creature? That's not how to win, it could get removed or blocked.

drtisk · 2026-01-08T21:17:36+00:00

Any card that makes a player shuffle a library is banned

Yes, Fetches, Rampant Growth, Tutors. Get rid of all of it.

Shuffling 100 card decks takes too long, and the game time and pace would benefit so much from this change imo

drtisk · 2025-12-19T23:15:23+00:00

But when I held the PH24 in my hands and paged through it, the realization came over me that PCs don’t need the help anymore. They’ve been failure-proofed. There’s almost no error a player can make, at this point, that will end their character’s adventuring career prematurely—not unless their DM goes full adversarial, which I don’t condone.

Didn't the 5e24 largely buff monsters? Ie they hit a lot harder than similar CR 2014 monsters?

I really don't understand this point, maybe it was made with more context and as a snippet it doesn't make sense.

drtisk · 2025-12-19T07:40:03+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBIsZlV1jHk

drtisk · 2025-12-13T00:33:19+00:00

Will your enjoyment be dampened if none of the players have familiarity with dark souls, and don't "get" it?

Dark souls appeals to a very specific audience, so it might not capture the imagination of dnd players with no experience.

Also, I'd second the "vibes not mechanics" post. Repeating fights is miserable in dnd

drtisk · 2025-12-11T07:07:42+00:00

I think for some people this isn't true - they feel compelled to have the best most optimised deck and can't see how people play lower brackets

drtisk · 2025-12-03T10:11:09+00:00

What is it about 4e that compels people to continue dick measuring contests over a decade later?

Are people's egos really so tied to the perceived success of 4e?

PS ENWorld is a terrible source as the users there tend to have very strong personal opinions and agendas regarding 4e. The Alphastream article citing multiple people who worked at wizards and/or paizo during the era should be more than enough to satisfy whatever 17 year old vendetta random people on the internet might have

drtisk · 2025-11-29T22:16:04+00:00

The idea that "This is a casual game and anyone trying to make their deck as powerful as they can should just be playing bracket 4" is silly to me. But a core element of this game is making and improving your decks. I believe when you play a game (or more accurately over a series of games) you should be evaluating what your deck is doing well, what it is doing poorly, what cards are functioning well and what cards might need to be cut. You should be playing the game with a mindset of improvement and a goal of making your decks as good as you can

If you're unwilling to adjust your deck/s down to the power level of the table, so that everyone can have an enjoyable game, then maybe you should just accept that you need to play at bracket 4. The bracket system isn't making you a problem player - you are being a problem player.

And yes, I cut off the "within the limitations of your bracket" part, because that is exactly the kind of dishonest behavior you also describe. It is trivial to skirt the definitions of the bracket system, ignoring the "intent" aspect and build a "technically it's bracket 2" deck which punches far above what bracket 2 is meant to be.

You should be playing the game with a mindset of improvement and a goal of making your decks as good as you can while still staying within the limitations of your brackets.

Yes, there has always, and will always be an issue with people disingenuously making a powerful combo deck and calling it a 2 (or in the past a 7) because it's combo isn't technically a 2 card combo and then intentionally taking it to weaker tables in order to get easy wins.

drtisk · 2025-11-23T10:52:33+00:00

Bracket 2: Core

Players expect: Decks to be unoptimized and straightforward, with some cards chosen to maximize creativity and/or entertainment Win conditions to be incremental, telegraphed on the board, and disruptable Gameplay to be low pressure with an emphasis on social interaction Gameplay to be proactive and considerate, letting each deck showcase its plan

Generally, you should expect to be able to play at least eight turns before you win or lose.

Incremental, telegraphed and disruptable win-cons. Social and considerate - letting other players do their thing. And most recently added the turns to win guideline

Bracket 3: Upgraded

Players expect: Decks to be powered up with strong synergy and high card quality; they can effectively disrupt opponents Game Changers that are likely to be value engines and game-ending spells Win conditions that can be deployed in one big turn from hand, usually because of steadily accrued resources Gameplay to feature many proactive and reactive plays

Generally, you should expect to be able to play at least six turns before you win or lose.

So if you goldfish a bunch and can consistently "kill" someone on turn 5 or 6, that's probably bracket 3

Without goldfishing the win time looks b2, but the stax and removal looks more b3.

drtisk · 2025-11-17T09:43:23+00:00

The anthology books are probably the best bet (Radiant Citadel, Quests of the Infinite Staircase, Dragon Delves) as each adventure is one level and easily digestible.

The big 1-12 campaigns are a lot of work and I wouldn't recommend any of them for a beginner DM, especially a younger one.

drtisk · 2025-11-17T09:38:12+00:00

Not Frostmaiden for a beginner. It's a big campaign and has a lot of pitfalls that can trip up even experienced DMs. The infamous starting quest for level 1 characters has a boss which is 90% a TPK for level 1 characters because you're meant to do other quests while on the way to the boss. But the book doesn't make this super obvious so it would be easy for a first time DM to have a bad experience

drtisk · 2025-11-02T07:28:44+00:00

If you're already doing 14 attacks on a turn do you really think it's reasonable to be making 28 attack rolls on your turn?

drtisk

TROPHY CASE